


The One Named Darkness

by CoronaAustralis



Category: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-09-27
Packaged: 2018-08-17 14:32:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8147555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoronaAustralis/pseuds/CoronaAustralis
Summary: Prophecies are dangerous. Once they are told, they are written in stone. Harry Potter once destroyed the most powerful dark wizard of the century based on a particularly heavy prophecy. He wouldn't wish that upon anyone, let alone his own son. Then again, Albus Severus never really gave much regard for being his son.





	1. Chapter 1

“You can’t tell anyone about this, understand me, Lily?” 

“I won’t tell a soul, Al, I swear! I’ll do anything to make you believe me!” 

“Let me have your arm, then!” 

The small, red-headed girl of about fourteen reached out and took her brother’s outstretched hand. 

“Al, why are we doing this?” she asked. 

Not answering, the scruffy-haired boy turned to the third member of the group, a taller boy who happened to be the spitting image of Draco Malfoy. Albus was only two years older than his sister, but barked out orders at her like a commander in the army. Albus Severus Potter was on a highly classified mission, and he had inherited his father’s stubbornness to carry him through the task. The only difference was that this mission was so secretive that no one else knew about it. Even his two companions weren’t fully aware of his intentions. 

“Scorpius, get your wand ready!” 

The blonde obliged. He would follow Albus to the ends of the earth, which at the time didn’t seem to be too much of a stretch. They had been walking through the dark, underground tunnels for hours. Scorpius was sure that if they didn’t return soon, his dad would owl the Potters and tell them they had broken the rules, quite an extraordinary feat considering Draco only had three conditions which allowed them to accompany him to Paris and roam the city freely whilst he conducted his business. The first, always stick together. That part was easy enough, and they hadn’t really managed to break it yet. No such luck with the second and third, however. Staying safe was something they had given up when the dark-haired member of the group pulled them into an abandoned part of the underground train system. As for always being on-time for dinner, they were seven minutes away from breaking that one and it didn’t seem like they were anywhere near being done with.. whatever it was they came to do. 

“You're going to perform the spell for the unbreakable vow,” commanded Albus, breaking him out of his thoughts. 

Hearing this, Lily let out a squeak. Her eyes widened as she tried to pull out of her brother’s grip. “You know Mum said you’re not supposed to-” 

“Stop being such a baby! Only babies use their mummies as excuses. If you weren’t willing to act like a grown-up, then you should’ve let Mr. Malfoy drop you off at the gallery until he finished with his work. Are you in or are you out?” 

Albus didn’t let go of her hand. He knew exactly how to get his sister’s attention, and was an expert on getting her to do exactly as she was told. Indeed, he was a Slytherin.  
Swallowing, Lily began, “Go on the, Scorp- do what you must!” She nodded at Scorpius to let him know she was ready. As he was about the cast the magical bonds around their hands, she added, “Will it hurt at all?” 

It was a childish question, she knew, but one she wanted an answer to. When she received no response, she felt her heart beginning to pound. Scorpius lent a reassuring smile her direction. 

“You know, Severus Snape did one with my Grandmother Narcissa when Dad was my age. She made him promise to protect him while he did his job at Hogwarts.” 

Lily’s eyes widened with curiosity. “What sort of job was it?” she asked. 

Scorpius’s face paled almost immediately. “I- I’m not sure,” he said, “I do know that it was before- before he joined the good side. Whatever it was, he didn’t actually go through with it, not completely anyway. It’s not in any of the history books, but Dad made the right choice in the end.”

Lily didn’t seem to notice the sudden change in behavior. She closed her eyes and felt a warmth and then a tingling sensation circling the skin on her forearm. Then, it burned. She blinked away the tears. _I’m not a baby. Babies cry, but I’m not a baby._ Telling herself this didn’t make it any easier, but it gave her some control, which was all she needed to keep it together. 

“Do you, Lily Luna Potter, swear to hold in the most utter confidence the events, experiences, and conversation between yourself, your brother, Albus Severus Potter, and his best friend, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, as we travel through these tunnels and encounter… er… whatever it is we’re going to be encountering?” 

Without choking, she managed to release a barely-audible “I do”. 

Scorpius continued. “And will you, should the need arise, lie for us and say we spent the time walking around the city and shopping for candy?” 

“I- I will!” 

The pain was too much, and she began sobbing. Scorpius tucked his wand back into his robes while Albus pulled her into a hug. 

“It’s alright, sis! It’s over now! Hush now, we haven’t even got what we came for!” 

He rubbed her back until she was silent aside from the occasional sniff. 

“Why are we here, anyway? There doesn’t seem to be an end to these tunnels. I’m hungry, and we’ve got two and a half minutes before my dad said to meet him for dinner, and I’m hungry!” 

Scorpius patted his stomach, which had been growling for a little while now. 

“Just watch, will you?” 

Albus was looking rather annoyed. He knew he probably didn’t have the right to be, since after all it had been him who wanted to go on this little escapade in the first place, but he couldn’t bear the growing impatience surrounding him. Reaching into the pocket of his muggle jeans, which he wore underneath his wizarding robes, he found a wand and pointed it at the opposite wall. 

_“Finite!”_

The wall vanished, and in its place was an open glass case filled with snow globe-looking artifacts. Scorpius gasped. Lily just stood and stared. For her, the magnificent orbs of light meant nothing, but he immediately knew what they were. His dad had always warned him to stay away from crystal balls. He warned him about the dangers of prophecies. Very few were born with the gift of sight, and out of those who were, not one could accurately interpret their predictions. Wizards had gone mad over prophecies they believed to be about them, some even driven to the point of taking their own lives or the lives of others. 

“I really don’t think we should be-” 

Albus held up a hand, cutting him off mid-sentence. _Whenever could he possibly have mastered wandless magic?_ , Scorpius wondered. Albus stepped forward and scanned the labels on the shelf above each ball, until he came across one which said “Riddle”. Lily whimpered. She looked like she was about to cry again, so Scorpius put his arm around her and allowed her to bury her head in his shoulder. The moment Albus picked up the ball, it began to glow and a raspy, echoing voice filled the air. 

_The Cursed Child and the snake born in the lion’s den shall procure an heir._  
_A sticky end meets a sticky end, the offspring her mother’s birthright curse shall bear._  
_No lesser suffering than her father’s plight,_  
_To live cold and afraid, slowly repelled by the light. ___  
_But from her mother’s father, the true legacy she shall inherit._  
_Conceived of a sin dating back to the origins,_  
_She shall rectify a cause to which the ends are unknown._  
_Born of an affair, so dark and so surrounded by scorn,_  
_She shall harness the powers bestowed upon her by her ancestors,_  
_A new world she will build, where all can be hers._  
_And the blood of those who oppose her shall nourish these new waters,_  
_As she avenges the last breaths of her chosen martyrs._

__The bright light which made the ball glow faded, and Albus carefully tucked it away along with his wand. All of the colour had drained from Scorpius’s face. His shoulder was throbbing, and when he looked, he saw that Lily was still very much there, using him as a pillow, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it. He wanted to lie down on the floor and pass out. He had half a mind to obliviate himself so he could forget what he had just heard. There was no mistaking it. The words were as clear as day. _“The Cursed Child and the snake born in the lion’s den.”_ It had to be a false prophecy. _ _

__It all made sense now. Albus’s lack of energy, the reason he was eating so little and hardly ever showed up on time for classes after the O.W.L examinations. Scorpius thought it was a case of end-of-year blues, something common in the last dull days at Hogwarts. He could kick himself for being so stupid._ _

__For many nights, Scorpius woke up screaming and crying in his bed in the Slytherin fifth-year boy’s dormitory. This had become part of a routine now. Nearly every night, he would wake up from horrible nightmares of being trapped in the other world, where Voldemort still lived and his father was nothing but a puppet with Delphi’s symbol, the Augrey, on the wall of his ministry office. As per usual, he had cast a silencing charm before he went to bed as not to wake the others. When he looked over at the next bed, he saw no sign of Albus. Every time he tried to question his best friend at breakfast the next morning, he received the same response: “Just catching up on some research!”_ _

__Now, Scorpius understood what research meant. Out of concern,he once placed a tracking spell on the brown, eagle-like bird that dropped letters into Albus’s hands every day. To his shock, it revealed that the owl had been commuting to Azkaban Prison. Scorpius asked Albus about this too, and he had responded saying his dad made rounds at Azkaban and sent letters letting him know everything was alright and Delphi was still locked up. Scorpius had brushed this off, too, when he knew it was impossible. The Head of Magical Law Enforcement had no place checking up on prisoner cells in Azkanan. Ministry regulations prohibited it, something all those hours in the Malfoy library before he joined Hogwarts taught him._ _

__He barely noticed when Albus had taken both his and Lily’s arms and apparated them right outside the gate of the Malfoy chateau they were staying in._ _

__“Al! Why are your wands pointed at us?” Lily almost shrieked. Scorpius started trembling when he realized she was right._ _

__"Al, please don't hurt us! You wouldn't! You couldn't!"_ _

__“I’m so sorry. I love you both very much, but no one can know.” A tear rolled down his face as he whispered, _“Obliviate!”__ _


	2. Memories

It seemed sudden and unexpected to Draco when the grey barn owl flew into the drawing room of the Malfoy holiday home. He had been trying to sort out piles of mysterious parchment he found in the cellar when he had gone down to retrieve a bottle of wine a week prior. Although he didn’t have an official job, he often contracted for the Department of Mysteries, cataloguing rare artifacts in exchange for a handsome bit of profit, not that he needed it. 

Just when he was about to restore a rather old and faded drawing, a bird came in through the window and dropped four letters onto the coffee table, startling Draco and causing him to spill a bit of ink. Cursing under his breath, he took out his wand and gave it a wave. The dark liquid rose into the air, forming an odd-looking blob and floating up until it deposited itself back into the bottle. Satisfied, he placed his wand back in his pocket. 

He didn’t even have to look at the seals to know what the letters were. Three were supply lists from Professor McGonagall: for Scorpius, Albus and Lily. The other was a message from the Potters, letting him know what time they would be meeting him after he dropped the children off at Platform 9 ¾. 

 

Scorpius was teaching Lily to play Exploding Snap, while Albus sat on the bed playing with a glass ball. He charmed it to look like a rememberall, and it even changed colours on occasion, which made it look like the real thing. Only he could see what it really was. If he looked at it long enough, Albus thought he could even see faces in it. 

There was a knock at the door. 

“Come in!” said Scorpius and Lily in unison. Albus sat quietly on the bed. 

Draco entered, and smiled at what he saw. “Enjoying ourselves, are we? Not enough studying for the new school year to keep you occupied?” he teased. 

Lily and Scorpius laughed. Albus seemed distant, but he had been for the past few weeks. Scorpius worried at first, until Lily promised him that was what Albus was like around family, and that he would be back to normal once he and Scorpius were alone. She didn’t say it quite as kindly as that, but it was how Scorpius preferred to remember it. 

“Dad, check out Albus’s rememberall!” Scorpius bounced up and down on his knees. 

An uncomfortable look crossed Draco’s face. Albus paled, although for an entirely different reason. Luckily, Draco recovered quickly and tossed the letters onto the bed beside Albus. 

“Your school supply list came today. We’re meeting Scorpius’s Godfather Blaise and Godmother Pansy in Diagon Alley in half an hour. Be ready.” With that, he left, his cloak swishing behind him reminiscent of a certain Hogwarts potion master.   
Wasting no time, Lily and Scorpius tore open their letters. 

“Al! Look! Professor McGonagall sent me a badge! I’m a prefect!” Scorpius beamed with delight. “Well, go on, then! Open yours. I’ll bet you’re a prefect, too!” 

Albus nodded slowly. “Who cares if I am? We almost ended the world last year, it’s not like anyone’s going to actually take us seriously. No matter, though. I don’t expect I’ll have to deal with this pathetic excuse for a school much longer!” 

Lily gasped. “You wouldn’t dare! I thought after everything Dad told us about the war…” 

“Shut up, Lily. There’s no way you could understand. Get out so I can change!” 

Lily pouted, but did as she was told. She got up and left, closing the door behind her. After the sound of her footsteps faded away, Scorpius jumped at the opportunity. 

“Are you going to tell me what that was all about?” 

“Leave me alone, Scorp.” 

“I don’t want to! You’re my best friend, and there’s something wrong. Lily says you’re like this all the time when you’re not at school, but I know she’s wrong. You haven’t been this out of it since you saw… you saw what Delphi did to me.” 

“Shut up about Delphi! You don’t know anything, you just think you do. You’re worse than Lily because you don’t know when to stop!” 

Scorpius didn’t back down. His eyes narrowed.

“If you don’t tell me, I- I won’t be your friend anymore!” 

Albus laughed out loud. It was a dry, forced laughter. For the first time, Scorpius noticed the extent of how much his friend’s appearance had deteriorated. There were dark rings around his eyes. His skin had grown paler. His body was thin. He looked ill. Scorpius knelt down beside his best friend. 

“Albus, look at me. We’ve been through everything together, and we tell each other everything. I don’t care what it is. I can help you. I won’t tell a soul. You’re planning something, and you’re going to need me!” 

“Fine,” Albus sighed. He pointed his wand at the door, uttering a series of spells. 

_“Colloportus!”_   
_“Muffliato!”_

_“Protego!”_

Scorpius was genuinely puzzled, and beginning to feel quite concerned. “What’s with all the secrecy?” he asked. 

“Shut up, unless you don’t want to know,” Albus growled. _“Salvio hexia!”_

That was the last of the protection spells. Albus reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of silvery-green liquid. He held it out for Scorpius to take. 

“Listen here carefully, Scorp. This potion is going to put you to sleep. You’ll only be out five minutes, but you’re going to see things that happened over a course of months. It’ll also take care of the memory charm, and you’ll have that too. Right now, I’m giving you your last chance to back out. If you say no, then I’ll put this away and _Obliviate_ you so that you don’t remember any of this.” 

A satisfactory smirk appeared on Albus’s lips. Scorpius didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know who his best friend was anymore. But, one thing was certain. He still had the courage he gained after the time travel fiasco, and wasn’t about to let that go to waste. 

“I’m in,” he said, and glugged down the potion. It tasted better than he expected. It reminded him of the sticky chili peanut sauce that seemed to be on everything he ate when his godmother took him to visit Thailand when he was seven. Within minutes, he fell into a dream state. 

_Albus sat on the ledge of the astronomy tower, his feet dangling dangerously over. In his hands was an envelope. There was no indication of where it came from, and it had been sealed with blood protection charm. Only the person it was meant for would be able to open it._

_“Albus!” Scorpius tried, he didn’t remember being at Hogwarts. Albus didn’t respond, and then it hit him. This was a dream. He wasn’t really there, it was just the potion. He walked up to the ledge and peered over Albus’s shoulder._

_Albus pressed his thumb against the circular wax seal that held the envelope shut. To Scorpius’s awe, it came undone, and a burned bit of parchment floated onto Albus’s lap._

_“A sticky end meets a sticky end. Nurmengard, 9 November, 2022.”_

_The letter burst into flames. “A sticky end meets a sticky end.” Where had Scorpius heard those words before?_

_The scene changed. At first, Scorpius thought he was still at the top of the astronomy tower at nightfall, but this place was reminiscent of something much darker. It was a prison of sorts, abandoned for at least a couple decades by the looks of it. “Nurmengard,” Scorpius murmured to himself. This was the place in the letter. According to A History of Magic, Gellert Grindelwald had imprisoned muggles and other undesirables here, and had ironically been imprisoned until Voldemort ended his life. But where was Albus?_

_As if to answer his question, Albus appeared standing in the doorway. “Delphi?” Albus scanned the room, looking for the heir of Slytherin._

_“Is that what you think?”_

_The voice came out of nowhere. Scorpius nearly jumped out of his skin. A man in a mask was striding toward them, well, him, Albus. Scorpius wasn’t really there._

_“W-who are you? I thought- the letter, it said-”_

_“You will learn to keep your tongue in your mouth unless you are spoken to, boy! It seems you really are a son of that blood-traitor line. I suppose you get your power from your father, not that he’s much better.”_

_The man was thin and wore a mask. Despite being covered from head to toe, he appeared frail, but the way he carried himself suggested that he once was, and still was, for that matter, a very powerful presence._

_“As you asked who I am, and it is impolite not to respond, I shall tell you.” He flicked off his mask with his wand. “Lucius Malfoy. Eldest living member of one of the last, truly pureblood families. You will call me Sir from now on. I believe my grandson has already… made your acquaintance.”_

_Scorpius would have recognized his Grandfather Lucius anywhere. He did not wear his time in Azkaban well, but wasn’t too weak to give his only grandchild and the youngest member of the Malfoy lineage his stern disapproval. Draco had tried to keep his parents away from his son, which wasn’t too hard since they had found Astoria’s progressive views a disappointing quality. Nevertheless, she came from a respectable pureblood family and with their family’s tarnished reputation after the war, the were willing to take whatever prospects came along for Draco._

_Albus looked stunned. “Y-yes, er… Scorpius is my friend. What do you want with me?”_

_“It wasn’t a question! Again you have spoken without being asked or referring to me as Sir, and for that you will suffer accordingly.” Lucius whipped out his wand and aimed his spell at Albus’s chest. “Crucio!”_

_The pain was unbearable. Albus writhed on the floor. “Please, Sir. I’ll do anything.”  
Lucius sent a wave of electric shocks through Albus’s body. “It will not do you good to beg. Someone such as yourself should never beg. You should expect others to fall at your feet, but never do the same. Instead, you must stop me using your own magic. You have the power. All you have to do is use it. Locomotor mortis!” Albus lost control of his legs. Scorpius wanted to cry out, to hex Lucius outright, which he would have done if he were more than a hologram. _

_There was a blast. Albus was standing over Lucius, who was lying on the floor, in awe. He slowly closed his mouth. Scorpius felt his body tremble. He was sure that his grandfather was going to hex Albus to Antarctica, but instead Lucius’s lips twitched into an evil, sideways smirk. “Very impressive. I think you’ll do just fine!”_

_By the looks of it, they were somewhere in Malfoy Manor when the scene changed again. Many of the rooms were identical and Scorpius, who had lived there all his life, couldn’t for the life of him tell a few of them apart without stepping out into the hall. When he did so, he realized they were in the dungeons and that it wasn’t a room at all, just a portion of the dungeon spelled to look like one. Lucius and another former Death Eater were sitting in chairs looking pleased about something. Scorpius followed their gazes._

_On the floor lay a body shrouded in yellow. The sheet was pulled back enough that Scorpius could see the face, but it was contorted beyond recognition. For some reason, Scorpius wasn’t aroused by any sort of emotion from looking at it._

_“The boy has come a long way in controlling his powers, hasn’t he, Rodolphus?” Lucius conjured a pipe and took a draw._

_The other former Death Eater, apparently Rodolphus LeStrange, nodded in agreement. “Surprising, for someone who bears the name of a traitor and an old fool. Yet, perhaps not so surprising at all. The Potters were powerful, there’s no denying that.”_

_“Aye, but it is young Albus who has been accomplishing such feats. My sources tell me he is receiving some extra… guidance… from the…” Lucius paused, trying to let out the word slowly. “Augrey.”_

_“Then it’s true about the prophecy!” Rodolphus suddenly grinned triumphantly. “I knew that Bella had her reasons. Of course, she and I never procured any children, then again she did return my love, but we understood each other had our moments.” He had a faraway look in his eyes._

_“Come, Rodolphus, we must not dwell on the past. Bella still lives in her daughter, and there is a larger plan at hand. Our task is to ensure that young Mr. Potter is ready to do what he must, when the time comes. By the looks of it, we’ve nothing to fear.”_

_Rodolphus took a long look at the body on the ground. “What sort of mudblood is this? Looks pretty torn up to me!” he laughed. “When shall we have Mr. Potter retrieve his prophecy?”_

Albus waved his hand. _“Rennervate!”_

Scorpius’s eyes blinked open. Before he could gather himself enough to ask questions, Albus was feeding him another potion from a similarly sized vial, but this time it was black and he couldn’t tell what color the liquid inside was. It tasted funny. It wasn’t as bad as drinking polyjuice potion, but it definitely didn’t bring a pleasant experience to the mouth. What was worse was the memory which flooded in during the aftermath. 

The day they ventured into the Paris underground. How did Scorpius forget? Well, that part was obvious, he’d been the victim of a memory charm. A memory charm cast by Albus, his best friend, who was also the future father of Voldemort’s successor. 

Albus’s expression hadn’t twitched in the slightest. “Now you know my secret. I don’t need to ask you this because I probably know the answer, but are you going to help me?” He cocked his head to the side, for a split second looking like the Albus that Scorpius met on the train to Hogwarts their first year. There was so much about this that was wrong to Scorpius. A Dark Lord? His best friend was going to be the parent of a Dark Lord, and by association he was probably going to be the godfather. As bizarre as it sounded, Scorpius was determined to find a way to live with that. Anything was better than losing Albus again. He squeezed his hand. 

“I’ll always be there to help you.”


End file.
